I really apologize for posting this, but...I hate life.

[Seicher Rae]

 

[Tari Landar]

5 minutes ago, miaminightmare said:

I too have hidden acreage. It's just up in the sky above the parcel so you can't see it. MUWAHAHAHAA. 👀

lmao

I don't have land in sl, but have loads of it in rl

Unless someone happens upon the acreage from above by some freak coincidence, or knows exactly where it is...they'll never find it.  Even using satellite images obscures it from proper view. It just looks like random forest/woods land. 

 

[FairreLilette]

1 hour ago, FairreLilette said:

Yes, the OP did...right here.  

On 11/6/2019 at 8:44 PM, Gopi Passiflora said:

No, I am not female. Although maybe you are right about the seasonal depressive disorder and endorphins. I guess maybe that's what I need.

But nonetheless I'd like to thank you and everyone else in this topic for your thoughtful, encouraging input! I read everything you all posted and it helped me look at things in perspective. Again, thank you! I really appreciate it!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I got a reaction of my above post as a laughter icon.   That is not funny.  There was nothing "funny" or haha in my post.  

[Tari Landar]

[Drake1 Nightfire]

5 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

Yeah this.  

I do not believe I have a mental illness.  

A brain imbalance yes...mental illness, no.

You also asked Luna how my Seasonal Depression is today.

First of all, I've had it for decades.  As a housewife with a part-time Ebay business, I did not go out much during the Winter months.   I never took well to cold.  The desert of Southern California can read below freezing at times and with wind, it's even colder.  So, I didn't go out.  I thought about lights but found them too expensive at around $1,500 dollars at the time.  

However, my years on Ebay were better because it got me to get up out of bed and not go into that hibernating my body wanted to do.  I could literally sleep 18 hours if I allowed myself (Winter only this hibernating like state would occur...though I could feel a change in my mood late Fall too...kind of like glum).  

After my divorce, I lead a different lifestyle now.  I am outside in Winter and when it's cold, I stand in the sunlight quite often and have been standing in the sunlight for years now.   However, we do have periods of rain and gray skies and I can feel myself feeling a little down during those few weeks but it's not as significant as it was.  I also exercise now which I didn't before.  I don't go into that hibernating state anymore.  What has changed and how it changed....I don't have all the answers.  It's just more manageable now.  

You do realize that a chemical imbalance in your brain is all that a mental illness is, right? 

Also, if you ever want to trade your winter for a New England one... 

30 minutes ago, FairreLilette said:

On 11/6/2019 at 8:44 PM, Gopi Passiflora said:

No, I am not female. Although maybe you are right about the seasonal depressive disorder and endorphins. I guess maybe that's what I need.

But nonetheless I'd like to thank you and everyone else in this topic for your thoughtful, encouraging input! I read everything you all posted and it helped me look at things in perspective. Again, thank you! I really appreciate it!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I got a reaction of my above post as a laughter icon.   That is not funny.  There was nothing "funny" or haha in my post.  

Didn't you say you were done and wasn't going to post anymore? 

2 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

You can use the ignore button.

I brought it up because a right to choose or not choose a modality may not be possible for someone who is considered "gravely disabled".  Gravely disabled is not always terminal...it can involve depression also....but that may be a very rare circumstance.    

Okay, I will stop talking.  I just had to go through some of the thread and clear a few things up.  

Yup, yup you did... 

 

 

ETA

IBTL

Edited November 15, 2019 by Drake1 Nightfire

[kali Wylder]

On 11/9/2019 at 9:34 PM, Beth Macbain said:

Let me put it this way - My earliest memories of my depression would be when I was around 7 years old. I didn't seek help until I was 36. That is 29 years... years...

Wow, I thought I was the only one who was depressed at such a young age....  My earliest recollection of how depressed I was, was when I attempted to kill my self at the age of 11, and finally got help when I was 44.  That included years of self medicating with alcohol and drugs and years of white knuckling it sober. Clinical depression really sucks but at least there are good meds now that can alleviate the worst of it.

 

So anyway, I guess I'm a little behind the times and didn't realize that this thread has been pretty busy since the last time I checked in.  RL has been rather demanding of my time lately, but this thread is near and dear to me so, I guess I'll quit apologizing and go back to page 2 or 3 or wherever I was and finish reading before I say anything more.

Edited November 16, 2019 by kali Wylder
seems I am quite a few pages behind....

[kali Wylder]

On 11/10/2019 at 2:08 PM, Seicher Rae said:

My story, my life, was hijacked by others, and that caused a lot of RL real trauma to me, that lasts to this day. Hence my hesitancy to post to this thread, and hence my absence from any type of SL Forum for years. But these Forums are not the old ones, and they seem safer,

It was ugly, I remember.   I'm sorry that happened to you.

[kali Wylder]

8 hours ago, FairreLilette said:

Yeah this.  

I do not believe I have a mental illness.  

A brain imbalance yes...mental illness, no.

You also asked Luna how my Seasonal Depression is today.

First of all, I've had it for decades.  As a housewife with a part-time Ebay business, I did not go out much during the Winter months.   I never took well to cold.  The desert of Southern California can read below freezing at times and with wind, it's even colder.  So, I didn't go out.  I thought about lights but found them too expensive at around $1,500 dollars at the time.  

However, my years on Ebay were better because it got me to get up out of bed and not go into that hibernating my body wanted to do.  I could literally sleep 18 hours if I allowed myself (Winter only this hibernating like state would occur...though I could feel a change in my mood late Fall too...kind of like glum).  

After my divorce, I lead a different lifestyle now.  I am outside in Winter and when it's cold, I stand in the sunlight quite often and have been standing in the sunlight for years now.   However, we do have periods of rain and gray skies and I can feel myself feeling a little down during those few weeks but it's not as significant as it was.  I also exercise now which I didn't before.  I don't go into that hibernating state anymore.  What has changed and how it changed....I don't have all the answers.  It's just more manageable now.  

I'm really glad you've found a way to manage how you feel. It sounds like life is better for you now.

[Tari Landar]

 

 

[Tari Landar]

That's my best sage advice above there...for anyone that might need it. I was going to quote and reply directly to someone I feel needs it the most but that seemed....removable, so I shan't do that. It's probably best I behave like an adult for a minute on that front. 

It's as nice as I get on this topic, it's a difficult one for me to discuss with people that, well.....don't want to discuss it. Everyone else was doing such a fantastic job, even when we didn't all see eye to eye or share the same opinions, we did so well. I'm proud of us for that, and also want to thank the folks who could've made this go in a much different direction, but are much better people than I, so they didn't. 

I'm not a wizard or a witch, I don't even play one on tv, or in sl....but I can spot a serious problem from a mile away...most of the time, and I'm mostly blind, how's that for magic?

What we have here...is a failure to communicate......oh, sorry, channeling again. Umm, forgot where I was going. Oh, yeah, back on topic. Thank you all for contributing and trying to help de-stigmatize something that is, quite often stigmatized, even by those who might possess it. Denial is a form of stigmatizing it too, but in order to talk about that side of it, I'd have to get all clinical and, yeah I'm not up for that right now. MY heart hangs heavy some days at the way others treat people with mental disorders, diseases, problems...my heart hangs heavy quite often the way people treat others with other problems as well. I have a very, very difficult time conveying that heaviness without being nasty. So I want to thank the folks that conveyed it for me (us?, maybe?) so that I didn't have this sinking urge to come in and do it myself. I posted memes because...I did't want the thread to go back to where it was, because we were doing so good, and helping people, and...sunshine and rainbows people, sunshine and rainbows.

I think some people need to really reconsider how, when and where they post-especially when they are literally on the opposite side of absolutely everything almost always..I don't think it's everyone else on the forums that is the problem. Even people who have behaved more like sworn enemies over the years on these forums have come together on this topic...that should be telling to ANYONE reading.

I am really hoping that I'm conveying these words in the kindest way possible and that the people who I really want to receive the thanks and the people I really want to receive the big bag of zip it, understand which one they are...in my eyes. (clear as mud? ok, good)

If you need it, it's there. If you don't, it's still there.

 

 

[FairreLilette]

7 hours ago, halebore Aeon said:

 

If you are basically forced into a hospital, due to mental illness. You literally have to do what they say, and take your meds and eat your food. 

This statement is not true.  I posted the proof back several pages.

The mental health profession, at least, in California is changing.  Even in a mental hospital you can refuse medications unless it is deemed an emergency.  Again, I posted proof of that.  

But to other things addressed in this thread...even though I have a differing point of view of what Seasonal Depression is and that others can seek ways other than medication to treat it is not placing a stigma onto anyone.  Change is good.  I find the current changes in the mental health profession liberating and wise.  

I said each person is an individual and it needs to be decided between the individual and the doctor and was talking about Seasonal Depression only. (it's on Page 2) and I didn't appreciate how one person in this thread copy and pasted half my sentence and left out the part about medication being between the individual and their doctor.  

Each person really needs to ask their health care team..."what are all the ways I can fight this"...because there is more beyond medication....and "the more" are things that are very beneficial; and, in California mentally ill people have more of a choice now in their treatment...so it's best to ask a lot of questions regarding all of the choices and which ones are best of your course of action to begin.  

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by FairreLilette

[miaminightmare]

I feel like I need to ask what's with the repetitive California stuff. It doesn't help people who don't live in that State.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

15 minutes ago, miaminightmare said:

I feel like I need to ask what's with the repetitive California stuff. It doesn't help people who don't live in that State.

Didnt you know that Cali was the center of the universe? If it's not relevant to Cali, it doesn't matter.  I thought everyone knew that.. 

Plus, shes wrong... If you are involuntarily committed to a mental institution in any state, they can force meds on you... "For your own good."

[miaminightmare]

Just now, Drake1 Nightfire said:

Didnt you know that Cali was the center of the universe? If it's not relevant to Cali, it doesn't matter.  I thought everyone knew that.. 

Plus, shes wrong... If you are involuntarily committed to a mental institution in any state, they can force meds on you... "For your own good."

Lol. I live in NorCal. The right to refuse treatment she keeps bringing up the CA version of depends entirely on if you're an adult and are considered competent. They can force you to take medication if they feel you need it for treatment. It's not some amazing thing. Not sure why she is ignoring all of that. Kind of frustrating. The right to refuse hasn't done me any good, in some places I didn't even get a treatment to make a choice about! How can I refuse treatment if they won't even give it to me? LOL.

[kali Wylder]

So much to think about.  I want to thank everyone for participating in this thread and I hope we can manage to keep the rancor to a minimum because I’d like to keep talking about this.  A little kindness goes a long way.  We all have buttons and it’s easy to push them.

I am a little bit hesitant to post this but I think I would like to know what others think.  This year makes the 20^th since I started taking antidepressants.  While I am very certain that I do not want to go back to the way I felt before meds, I have to admit it troubles me that I’ve been taking this rather strong brain chemical all this time. 

So I did a little research.  One of the reasons I was undiagnosed with clinical depression for so long is that the really good antidepressants, the ones that work, weren’t around when I was 11 years old.  Prozac came out in 1987.  That’s just 12 years before I started taking Venlafaxine which came out in 1993. This alarms me even more because there just can’t be many long term effects studies in existence.  I’ve been taking this drug for 20 years and it’s only been in use for 26 years. 

So anyway, I was thinking of trying to detox and see how life is without the drug.  I am not so foolish as to undertake something like this by myself so I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist and discussing a gradual withdrawal.  But just before I was supposed to start cutting the dosage, all hell broke loose in my personal life.  My 93 year old father was hospitalized with pneumonia and I had to take family leave from work to travel cross country to see him.

5 minutes ago, miaminightmare said:

Lol. I live in NorCal.

Me too! Then I came home to a particularly nasty fire season here in California and had my electricity shut down 3 times for several days each time. I quickly decided it was a bad idea to change my meds with so much stress and I’m still not feeling comfortable enough. My father survived the pneumonia, but was so weakened by the illness that he is still in rehab.

I wonder now which is riskier, continuing the life saving medication or rock the boat to satisfy my curiosity. My shrink agrees with me that now is not a good time to rock the boat.

[miaminightmare]

Just now, kali Wylder said:

Me too! Then I came home to a particularly nasty fire season here in California and had my electricity shut down 3 times for several days each time. I quickly decided it was a bad idea to change my meds with so much stress and I’m still not feeling comfortable enough. My father survived the pneumonia, but was so weakened by the illness that he is still in rehab.

I wonder now which is riskier, continuing the life saving medication or rock the boat to satisfy my curiosity. My shrink agrees with me that now is not a good time to rock the boat.

Oof. Yeah, I got lucky where I live. I'm literally on the edge of the cut-off bubble they've got for my neighborhood. One thing that really drives me nuts is having to change doses on medications, or that and adding a new one or taking one away altogether. My ability to do anything ends up flying out the window and I've had a few bad reactions that ended up in full on Squeaky-McRage-Hamster episodes.

I hope your father gets better quick. It sucks when they're away in rehab or at the hospital. We have miserable health care for elderly here so we took papa back when his health started declining and switched to at home caregiving. Outside of my uncle, my entire family pretty much lives together and has lived together for years. So, there's me, my dad and my stepmom, then there's my grandma and formerly my papa. I think it'd be too stressful to move away (even a short distance) from them. I'm too attached to my grandma (she's like my adopted mom because she took me in from the neglect of my birth mother) that I'd be uncomfortable if I couldn't see her every day or know that she's there for me in minutes if I need her.  One of the things I have been talking to the therapist about is what will I do when grandma passes away, now that papa is gone.

[Adam Spark]

Call it whatever you want, we all have mental health issues, just the same as we have physical health issues. EVERY ONE of us has a responsibility to keep an eye on our mental health. Seasonal issues are, in my opinion, 24/7 mental health issues that simply manifest themselves with triggers of a certain time of year. I am willing to bet that most people who enter a dark place during Christmas would do so if Christmas in July (a real thing) was celebrated around them

Everybody struggles mentally. You cannot convince me otherwise. Only a few of us are willing and able to admit it. We need to change the stigma. We need to recognize mental health awareness as a sign of strength, not weakness. Strength does not lie in being OK. Strength lies in living with and dealing with not being OK.

 

[FairreLilette]

9 hours ago, kali Wylder said:

So much to think about.  I want to thank everyone for participating in this thread and I hope we can manage to keep the rancor to a minimum because I’d like to keep talking about this.  A little kindness goes a long way.  We all have buttons and it’s easy to push them.

 

I am a little bit hesitant to post this but I think I would like to know what others think.  This year makes the 20^th since I started taking antidepressants.  While I am very certain that I do not want to go back to the way I felt before meds, I have to admit it troubles me that I’ve been taking this rather strong brain chemical all this time. 

 

So I did a little research.  One of the reasons I was undiagnosed with clinical depression for so long is that the really good antidepressants, the ones that work, weren’t around when I was 11 years old.  Prozac came out in 1987.  That’s just 12 years before I started taking Venlafaxine which came out in 1993. This alarms me even more because there just can’t be many long term effects studies in existence.  I’ve been taking this drug for 20 years and it’s only been in use for 26 years. 

 

So anyway, I was thinking of trying to detox and see how life is without the drug.  I am not so foolish as to undertake something like this by myself so I’ve been seeing a psychiatrist and discussing a gradual withdrawal.  But just before I was supposed to start cutting the dosage, all hell broke loose in my personal life.  My 93 year old father was hospitalized with pneumonia and I had to take family leave from work to travel cross country to see him.

 

 

Me too! Then I came home to a particularly nasty fire season here in California and had my electricity shut down 3 times for several days each time. I quickly decided it was a bad idea to change my meds with so much stress and I’m still not feeling comfortable enough. My father survived the pneumonia, but was so weakened by the illness that he is still in rehab.

I wonder now which is riskier, continuing the life saving medication or rock the boat to satisfy my curiosity. My shrink agrees with me that now is not a good time to rock the boat.

It's good you are talking to your doctor about this.  I would follow his/her advice.  If you can, add exercise because exercise releases the chemicals and hormones that are out of balance in the first place.  Medication forces releases of these chemicals and hormones as well.  Exercise and medication both do the same thing - cause a release of the chemicals and hormones that are out of balance and the root cause of depression.  Though there can be other contributing factors into depression such as drug and alcohol use, etc.  

But, one thing I wanted to say about Seasonal Depression and medication.  I do not know the reactions of all anti-depressants but some have a side effect where the person cannot go out in the sun as certain anti-depressants cause what is called "light sensitivity" and the patient is advised to stay out of the sun.   This sounds like a problem issue for the Seasonal Depression...it's taking away the very sun they need.

But, doctor's are faced with an unknown regarding recommending diet and exercise to their patients for any issue or illness because the patient may not do the recommended dietary changes nor the exercises...although it's best to ask your doctor what he/she recommends besides medication and then do those.   It's called "building up your arsenal"...adding all you can into your daily routine to live a better life and feel better.  However, "building up your arsenal" does not mean going off your medications...it simply means adding other things too.    

Edited November 16, 2019 by FairreLilette

[FairreLilette]

9 hours ago, miaminightmare said:

I feel like I need to ask what's with the repetitive California stuff. It doesn't help people who don't live in that State.

I am speaking about the changing of the laws in California and how they pertain to mental illness because it's important to know that there isn't one united "one way" to treat depression or mental illness any more.  There are different schools of thought and different laws now.  We are the world here.  But, to be more specific, the laws regarding mental health in California are not changing, they have changed.  

The mental health patient has more say in their own treatment plan and there should not be any stigma attached to those who want a more holistic approach nor should they be laughed at either.  

Edited November 16, 2019 by FairreLilette

[Jagix Linden]

Despite treatment and awareness being better than ever, many mental health issues are seriously misrepresented, misunderstood, and mistreated. Without proper, individualized care, there is no one here who will be able to give all the answers. Many have given great advice and excellent resources, and I recommend perusing this thread for more information.

In any case, I do want to say that it's great to see that so many of you are inspired and passionate about helping out a fellow misfit. Even when the advice isn't the best, the intentions are good, and the purpose is clear—to give a fellow resident a way to cope—and that's what community is all about.

The fact of the matter is that, in one way or another, we're all misfits. That's sort of the beauty of Second Life. It's a world where you can be anything. If there's a community for people like you, you can join it. And if there isn't, you can create it. We're incredibly passionate about that behind the scenes. So yes, while it's time for this thread to end, I am glad to see the community supporting one another.

And, because none of my thread locks are ever too serious, you can have this:

Forum Serenity Prayer

Mods, grant me the serenity* to use the ignore button
The courage not to take the bait
And the wisdom to know when to let a thread die
*serenity is knowing you can't stop the signal, but you can stop the noise coming out of the trolls